


They Say We Are What We Are

by Tae74_2ndDan



Series: Immortals [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It of Sorts, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Team Bonding, sensei swap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-03-05 16:37:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13391880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tae74_2ndDan/pseuds/Tae74_2ndDan
Summary: .... but we don't have to be.Kakashi was assigned Neji, Lee, and Tenten last year and they managed to pass the bell test. Therefore, Kakashi was unavailable to lead Team 7. That's okay, though. There's another jounin available who'd be absolutely ecstatic to take them on.





	1. Cheerful Introductions and Running for Your Life

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this fic was one a friend and I came up with while discussing Naruto crack fics and doing mind-numbingly dull work at a bad job. I don't work there anymore, so I can't tell her I finally got around to writing and posting it, but a lot of the idea came from her.
> 
> And thanks to my beta eleutheria_has_won. This would not have happened without her.
> 
> I am not Masashi Kishimoto. Naruto is not mine.

“Why don’t we start with introductions? Tell us all your name, what you wish to accomplish as a ninja, your nindō!”

  
Maito Gai - or as he had been newly christened, Gai-sensei - received no reaction from his new pupils. The young Uchiha was too busy being too cool to react to his teacher’s eccentricities - so hip! The Yondaime’s son and Haruno Sakura looked more than a little confused, and maybe a little horrified on Sakura’s part. Perhaps she had a great fear of public speaking! These young genin, his students, were now his next great mission in life - a mission handed to him by the Hokage himself, a mission that was vital for the success and future of the village. He could only hope that he might succeed with as much excellent vigor as his rival, who had been given a similar mandate only a year ago.

  
This day was one of great change for all of them, so it was no surprise to find them hesitant. Gai supposed he would have to go first then, to inspire them to speak their hearts.

  
“I am Maito Gai, Konoha’s Handsome Green Beast! But the three of you can call me Gai-sensei! I am the greatest taijutsu master in Konoha, and possibly the world, thanks to my Spirit of Youth! My new goal in life, is to be the best Sensei you could ever know! Now who wants to go next?” He punctuated his speech with his most blinding grin and a big thumbs up, to set them at ease.

  
The three new genin stared at the energetic man in green spandex for several moments. Then Sasuke turned his head, scoffing, and ignored the question in favor of being as cool as a certain jounin. The blond Uzumaki began bouncing up and down in his seat, waving his hand in the air, and shouting “Me, sensei! I’ll go!” Sakura continued to stare in apparently growing horror at the man who had been assigned as her new jounin instructor. For sure, her fear of public speaking must be mighty indeed; Gai, as her sensei, would be honored to assist her in overcoming that fear. Gai could hardly wait to begin work on his first challenge as a sensei! He was almost as excited to help her, as Naruto was to introduce himself. Such a youthful spirit!

  
“Excellent young man! I can see that your Spirit of Youth burns brightly!” Gai-sensei crowed, giving Naruto another one of Gai’s signature thumbs up.

  
“Oh, ummm…. but what do I say again?”

“Tell us your name and why you wish to be a ninja!”

“Oh yeah! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I’m gonna be Hokage! Believe it!”

The child spat his declaration out almost like a challenge, as if he didn’t actually expect his new team to believe him. As if he was daring Gai to try to ignore him and his goal. As if Gai would ever ignore such a passionate spirit of youth as the one that resided in this child, the son of the ever-youthful Red-Hot Habanero! Well, that couldn’t be allowed to stand.

“I do believe it, my dear student!” Gai bawled, loudly enough to be heard in Suna. He ignored Sakura and Sasuke’s winces at his volume as he vowed, “I swear here and now that I will put my heart and soul into training you to be the best Hokage this village has had yet!”

“R-really, Gai-sensei?”

“Of course Naruto! As your teacher, my mission in life is to help you to achieve your own mission in life! Now which of you has the passion needed to go next?”

Gai’s declaration caused Naruto to freeze and sit silently, in a way Gai hadn’t seen him do yet. His face bore an expression of serious contemplation mixed with awe. Not to worry, though. If a lifetime of dismissal couldn’t crush the child’s youthful spirit, some belief wouldn’t kill it. Gai was certain the boy would be fine once it sunk in that Gai was being sincere. Sakura was looking vaguely in Naruto’s direction, but still seemed to be processing how to handle speaking while in the presence of the force of nature that was Gai’s youthful personality. Sasuke scoffed again and scooted away from the other two on the bench.

“No need to be shy!” Gai-sensei cheered, intentionally mistaking Sasuke’s reluctance as insecurities rather than refusal. “We are all waiting to hear who you are! What is your name, my dear student?”

“You should already know my name, if you are actually a jounin,” Sasuke muttered. “And they were in class with me. As for why I want to be a ninja, I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

The similarities with Gai’s old rival just kept growing. That might require some attention in the future, before he really became like Kakashi. Not that being similar to Gai’s eternal rival was a bad thing, but nobody - especially a child - needed to carry that much pain long enough for it to turn to guilt.

“Of course I know your name, but it is only polite to introduce yourself the first time you meet someone in person. And I must know what fire drives you, so as to better help you succeed!”

“I don’t need your help. I will kill a certain someone, and restore my clan on my own.”

Oh, yes. Definitely reminding Gai of Kakashi. And not only in the good ways.

“I see! You wish to go after Uchiha Itachi for the Uchiha Massacre! But tell me, what will killing Itachi do to help you?”

Sasuke’s face went pale with anger - and perhaps pain. Gai’s heart went out to the young boy, who had suffered so greatly so early in his life, and who continued to suffer even now. “I don’t want to hear that name! And what do you mean, what do I get? I get revenge! He killed everyone! I have to kill him!”

That, however, needed to be fixed immediately. Otherwise the boy wouldn’t grow old enough to become like Kakashi.

“Killing that man will not bring your loved ones back to you.” Gai-sensei pointed out gently, suddenly looking completely serious. Today was a day of rejoicing, but the health and well being of his students was no joking matter. After all, he wanted them to survive their first mission out of the city, when the time came. “However, revenge can easily lose you your comrades and push away friends. And while I can see that your spirit feels strongly about this, you can never truly achieve your full potential for anyone but yourself. Rivalries are healthy ways to encourage yourself to improve your skills and achieve your goals, but revenge is petty and harmful. If vengeance is your goal, you will only lose those you have left until you have no one and nothing. You must get stronger for your own sake, because you wish to be stronger, not because he is stronger than you. Let the strength of your spirit shine through the shadow he has cast on your life. Do not let your enemies decide the path you take.”

Sasuke’s face barely hid the anger and shame these words elicited. It wasn’t a surprising reaction; Gai remembers Kakashi as a child well enough to have expected as much. Gai had reminded the boy of his parents being gone forever, called out his lack of friends, and concluded that he was just doing what his worst enemy had told him to do. And that reaction clearly said it was all true.

“Whatever,” the child muttered, turning away again.

Gai paused for a moment before returning to his energetic nature. That would have to be enough for now. Too much would only push the boy further away. He turned toward his only kunoichi, ignoring the embarrassed horror still frozen to her face.

“And at last, it is your turn, young kunoichi!”

Sakura didn’t respond beyond a slight twitch at the volume. Gai-sensei tried again.

“My dear girl, tell me, what is your name, and why have you chosen this path? What goal burns deep in your soul, powered by the Spirit of your Youth?”

Gai kneeled dramatically as he asked this, putting his hand on the girl’s shoulder. She startled at the touch, now realizing he was talking to her.

“M-my name is Haruno Sakura. I want to, uh…. to become a strong, well-known kunoichi?” Sakura intoned meekly, without any obvious conscious thought, her eyes flickering between the green jumpsuit and bowl cut that defined Gai’s appearance. Alas, something about it all - most likely her atrocious fear of public speaking - seemed to be truly overwhelming for her.

“An excellent goal!” Gai said cheerfully. Perhaps some encouragement would spur her spirit to grow as passionate as the young Uzumaki’s.

Sakura jumped a little, as if only newly taking notice of his presence. She paused, then continued cautiously, “I want people to recognize and respect my name, even outside the village. I don’t want to stay on the sidelines and just be someone else’s backup.”

“Ah,” Gai said sagely, nodding his head. “I understand. But you must be more Youthful if you are to achieve this goal! Show me your desire to succeed with everything you do!”

Having to speak seemed to be shifting her out of her petrified trance a little. She managed a small nod to acknowledge his response to her stated goal. With luck, she’d have plenty more time to adjust to speaking in the presence of her teammates during the genin test.

Gai reared back and stood in front of his three genin, hands on his hips, grinning broadly. Not bad! Certainly, there were some issues that needed to be straightened out, but the spirit of youth was present in these three for sure!

“Now, let us get straight down to business. We will start with an endurance exercise. We will run around the village until I tell you to stop. There will be no breaks! No one will get left behind! If one of your teammates drops, carry them on your back!” With that, Gai-sensei handed each of them a large water pouch to hang on their hips and a bulging bag. “The bag has food pills in it so when you get hungry, you can nourish your body while you continue to run!”

At this, Sakura seemed to snap completely out of her daze. She rifled through the bag she’s been handed, then looked up sharply. “But this bag has at least a week’s worth of food pills Sensei! We won’t need all of this if we’re just running around the village.”

“Ah, but you are not just running around the village! You are running around the village until you know why you are running!”

“Ummm, what?” Naruto asked. “What does that mean, Sensei?”

“I mean you must understand why you are running! You will not stop until everyone can show me that reason! To stop will be to give up on all your dreams! You must show me the strength of your spirit of youth!”

“So, we just have to tell you why you’re having us run?” Sakura asked.

“Not quite.” Gai said, putting a hand to his jaw and tilting his head, a mysterious smile on his face. “It is not something you can tell me with your words. You must show me that you understand with the only passion in your soul! Now let’s go!”

****

The green clad man didn’t wait for them to respond before he blurred and vanished, moving faster than their eyes could track. He reappeared at the base of the tower they had met at and called once more for them to join him. Not seeing any other choice, the new genin followed, Naruto scrambling to beat the others down while Sakura still grumbled her questions. Sasuke just sighed before joining them.

****

Apparently, their new sensei was going to be running with them. Well, not with them, because he very quickly pulled ahead of them, but he led them to this road that went around most of the village. He told them to stay on that path, so the civilian crowds wouldn’t get in their way. Then he ran off down the path still shouting encouragement and something about the spirit of youth. Naruto wasn’t really sure what he was talking about even if it sounded a little bit like that Will of Fires Iruka-sensei had talked about sometimes. Iruka-sensei hadn’t ever talked about a spirit of youth though, or maybe Naruto just hadn’t been paying attention when he did.

Even though they’d been told they were running as a team, Sasuke-teme sped up almost as fast as new-sensei had, disappearing around the bend in moments. Not that Naruto couldn’t have kept up with him or anything! It was just that Sakura-chan wasn’t as fast, and it seemed mean to just leave her by herself. Especially since this would probably be hardest for her out of the three of them. They’d only been running for a few minutes now, and she was already breathing kind of hard. He should probably stay with her in case she needed him to carry her like new-sensei had said.

 

  
Sakura managed to keep going with him for the whole afternoon, but he did have to slow down for her as they went. As the sun was setting, she started tripping though.

The last time new-sensei had passed, she’d asked sensei if they were going to stop and what time they should meet in the morning, but he just laughed and said they hadn’t all shown him the answer to his test yet. They were going really slow now, and Sakura was breathing really hard. (It was actually kind of boring, going that slow.) Naruto tried cheering for her like sensei was when he passed them, and she’d even stopped glaring at him every time he did, so he guessed he was helping. Or maybe she was just too tired to glare.

He noticed Sasuke-teme wasn’t passing them as often, so he must have slowed down too. They hadn’t seen him for at least two hours. Naruto had also lost count of how many laps they’d run. At least 5. Hopefully that wasn’t Sensei’s mystery question. But maybe Sakura-chan was keeping count; she was smart like that.

 

  
The sun was completely down by the time Sakura’s tripping turned into a fall. Luckily, Naruto had been facing her to cheer her on better, so he saw it fast enough to catch her. She looked really tired. Was he supposed to carry her now? Is that what sensei meant when he said not to leave anyone behind? Sakura-chan probably knew.

“Are you okay, Sakura-chan?”

“I’m fine.”

She didn’t look fine…

“Are you sure? I can carry you if you want-“

“I said I’m fine!”

Maybe she just didn’t want to admit that she was tired? She said that super cool thing about wanting to be a really famous kunoichi and respected by people…. So maybe she didn’t want him to know she needed help? He always hated asking for help when jerks like Sasuke, or sometimes Kiba, were around to hear that he didn’t know how to do something.

“I know, but it’s really dark, and you keep tripping. I just thought, maybe you can’t see the rocks so good in the dark or something. I know you’re tough...”

“I’m just tired, Naruto,” she huffed. She was doing a lot of huffing. But she kept running.

 

  
Sasuke was passing them again the next time Sakura tripped bad enough to fall. Naruto didn’t notice fast enough to catch her in time.

“Sakura-chan!” Naruto stopped to help her back to her feet.Sasuke-teme barely even slowed down to look at her, that jerk. “I’m sorry! Are you okay? I’m sorry, I should’ve caught you-“

“Idiot. We’re not supposed to stop for anything.” Sasuke threw over his shoulder as he pulled further ahead. “You’ll disappoint your new sensei already if he sees you.”

“Shut up, Sasuke-teme! She can’t keep running if she’s hurt! And how are we supposed to pick her up to carry her if we don’t stop? Huh?”

Sasuke just scoffed and kept going. Or maybe he was huffing like Sakura-chan, but more angry and more stupid. Naruto couldn’t tell, but the bastard wasn’t running so fast anymore.

“He said to carry each other if one of us falls, you bastard! I’m not just gonna leave her here on the ground!”

“It’s okay, Naruto.” Sakura was sitting up now. “I’m okay. Really - I’m just so tired, that’s all. You keep going, I just really need to rest for a minute. You don’t need to get in trouble with me.”

“But Sensei said we could help each other. You don’t have to get in trouble either!”

He reached out a hand to help her up.

“Are you sure? Aren’t you tired too?” He pulled her to her feet.

“No way! I’m only a little sleepy! I could run all night, easy! Even with you on my back! Believe it!”

She hesitated for a moment, then gave a small nod and a grateful smile. He turned around and squatted a little so she could climb on his back. Once they both had a good grip on the other, he started back up with a steady jog. Within a few minutes, Sakura’s grip began to relax and her head kept sinking down, until it was resting on his shoulder. Eventually, her whole body went slack, and Naruto realized she had fallen asleep. He tried to run a little smoother, so she wasn’t being bounced so much. It was a lot harder to keep running now.

At least it wasn’t quite as slow and boring.

And new-sensei had looked even happier when he ran past again, still cheering.

 

  
Somehow, he ended up running next to Sasuke. The bastard glared at him for a second, but then he just looked away and ignored him. Naruto considered passing him, but decided it wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t sure how long Sakura-chan would need to rest, and he didn’t want to get so tired he dropped her, so he figured it would be better to save his strength. He thought Iruka-sensei had called that “serving energy” or something. If he remembered, maybe he’d ask Sensei what it was the next time he ran past.

They’d run almost half the night when Sasuke started tripping. Then falling. Naruto tried to help him up, but the jerk just pushed his hand away. As the sun was coming up, the bastard completely face-planted. Naruto would have laughed if he hadn’t been so tired from carrying Sakura and staying up so late.

Sasuke’s water pouch and food pills fell off his waist and started spilling across the path. Naruto, being careful not to drop Sakura, helped pick them up and handed them back to Sasuke. At least Sasuke-teme didn’t glare at him when he handed the pouches over. Maybe he was too tired to be mean. That would certainly be a first.

Sakura started waking up as Naruto straightened back up. She started moving real slowly, but then jumped upright so fast, Naruto nearly dropped her. He set her down, and she scrambled back a few feet, her face as pink as her hair.

“I’m so sorry, Naruto! I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you!” She apologized hurriedly looked around, pausing on the lightening horizon.She shrieked and turned back to Naruto. “I slept all night‽ You carried me all night‽”

“It’s okay,” Naruto laughed, a little awkwardly. “I mean - you must have been really tired to be able to sleep all night, even though I was running the whole time, and it was probably really bouncy, and-“

Sakura-chan’s face went all wrong and she looked kind of mad. She was even more red now than when he first set her down. He must have said something bad on accident. He started trying to apologize, but she cut him off before he got anything out.

“Thank you, Naruto.” She muttered. She was looking at his feet for some reason. “We should probably get going again.”

Sasuke-teme had finished re-adjusting his pouches so they wouldn’t fall off again and had started running again - kind of slowly, and and in a funny way, like his pants were too tight or something. Sakura-chan didn’t wait for him to agree before she took off too.

Naruto caught up to her as she caught up to Sasuke. He wasn’t trying to race ahead of them like he had before. None of them were moving very fast at all, almost as slow as they had before Sakura fell asleep, but Naruto didn’t mind. His legs didn’t want to move any faster after carrying him, and Sakura-chan, all night. Sasuke almost fell a few more times, but he let Sakura steady him without very much glaring.

Even though Naruto wasn’t carrying Sakura-chan anymore, it was getting kind of hard to breath.

****

Sakura thought it was probably about three in the afternoon when Naruto fell over. It surprised her so much that she shrieked a little bit. He hadn’t been tripping all day like her and Sasuke, and it didn’t look like he tripped this time either; he just went from jogging next to her to being on the ground behind her.

She bent down to help him up, her legs screaming at the change, but he didn’t respond. It scared her for a second, thinking he might have died from running too long or something, until he let out a horrible grumbling noise and she realized he was asleep and snoring.

“Of course, he could fall asleep while running and not notice when he hits the ground,” she muttered. “Well, I guess I’ll have to return the favor….”

She moved to lift the smaller boy, but couldn’t even try to stand; he was much heavier than she expected. Way to heavy for her to lift by herself. She looked up and saw that Sasuke hadn’t stopped with her.

“Wait! Sasuke-kun, can you help me with him? He’s too heavy….”

Sasuke-kun looked back and rolled his eyes at her, and for a second she thought he was going to keep going, but then he turned all the way back toward them. He tried to pull Naruto onto his back for a moment before dropping him back down. Somehow, Naruto slept through that too.

“This loser is to heavy for me to run with after already running this long. We’ll have to carry him together. And we need to move quickly, before that guy sees us stopped.”

As they struggled to get his arms over both their shoulders and stand, it occurred to Sakura that Sasuke agreeing to work with her was practically a miracle. It would have felt like a dream come true if she weren’t too tired to feel anything other than exhausted. Then she had to keep focused on moving with Sasuke, so they could run without pulling Naruto off of the other. Luckily, he was shorter than both of them, so his feet didn’t drag too much. She wasn’t sure they could have done it if they had to fight gravity and friction to keep Naruto moving.

Sakura was pretty sure that only Naruto could have slept through all of that. And maybe Shikamaru.

 

  
By the next time Gai-sensei passed them (for what had to be the dozenth time that hour), they weren’t really running anymore. They were barely even jogging. Sakura could barely even hear Sasuke-kun over the sound of her own gasping as they struggled to keep moving. Sakura expected the green man to yell for them to move faster, or at least cheer like he had every other time he’d passed, but instead he just watched them without a word.

She really, really wished he was about to tell them they could stop, but she didn’t think he was. Especially, since she still didn’t know why they were running, let alone how to ‘show him’ she understand with ‘the passion in her soul.’ She had no idea how to pass this test. Part of her was scared she would have to keep running like this for the rest of her life.And he’d told them stopping meant giving up on their dreams. Did that mean he wouldn’t help them like he promised to if they couldn’t pass his test? Or worse - did it mean they had to give up being shinobi? Not knowing any of the answers she needed was not fun.

Of course, he didn’t say they could stop. After a moment of watching them (and giving Sakura a heart attack as she went back and forth between hope and despair), he pulled ahead and disappeared into the sunset. Sakura couldn’t tell if he’d used a ninja technique to disappear, or if he’d just run out of sight while she was blinking.

 

  
She hoped she wasn’t about to fall asleep like Naruto had. They were barely moving, but somehow they kept getting to different parts of the village. She really hoped she wasn’t going to collapse again. Or start snoring while she was still running. Either would be really embarrassing, and not even Sasuke-kun could carry both of them. Especially not since Naruto had gotten even heavier as they’d kept going.

‘Wait, that’s not how weight works….Thinking of Naruto, he’s slipping! Agh! I’m dropping him!’ 

She tried to re-adjust her hold, but she just ended up stumbling and losing her grip completely. Luckily, Sasuke didn’t let go too, so Naruto didn’t get dropped on the ground again. She started to pull him back over her shoulders, but Sasuke kept moving.

“Don’t bother. You’ll only trip or drop him again. I’ll manage it by myself for a while.” Sasuke huffed out the first thing he’d said to her since they’d started carrying Naruto. ‘Ugh, he probably thinks I’m pathetic now!’ she screamed at herself.

“Are- are you sure, Sasuke-kun?” ‘Please be sure! You’re right, I’ll just end up dropping him again. I can barely even stand right now.’

“If he gets too heavy, I’ll just wake him up.”

Sasuke started moving again, but they hadn’t gone very far - really only a few meters - before he dropped to one knee. He dropped Naruto onto his back at Sasuke’s feet.

“Wake up, loser,” Sasuke grunted. “I’m sick of carrying your stupid ass.”

Naruto didn’t react until Sasuke smacked him on the stomach. He shot to his feet, knocking Sasuke over in the process.

“What? What happened?” Naruto shouted, as loud as ever, of course. “Whoa, how’d it get so dark?”

‘He doesn’t even realize he fell asleep‽’

“It’s almost night time, Naruto. You fell asleep, so Sasuke-kun and I have been carrying you for almost four hours!”

“What! Really? Thanks a lot for that, Sakura-chan! I was getting reeeally tired, but I feel loads better now! Still really tired, but not as tired, ya know? You still look really tired though. Do you want me to carry you now, so you can get some sleep again?”

‘I should have expected Naruto to be this loud, even when he’s just woken up.’

“That’s alright, Naruto. I can keep going. Thank you, though.”

“Oh, okay…. I mean, of course you can keep going! Hey Sasuke-teme, how come you’re just laying there? We gotta start running before new-sensei finds out we stopped!”

“I can’t, you idiot.” Sasuke huffed, still breathing hard. “I’m too tired to move, because I had to carry your stupid carcass for so long.”

“Oh, right. Ummm….Well, I’ll carry you then? Hey, Sakura, can you help me get him on my back?”

‘Ugh, I’m too tired tired to move too. But I guess, I can help if it’s for Sasuke-kun.’

“Oh-right, of course. Here….”

 

  
Between the two of them, they managed to get Sasuke situated on Naruto’s back without dropping him. Naruto started jogging ahead, much faster than the two of them had gone while carrying him, but he slowed down when he saw Sakura wasn’t keeping up. She guessed it was kind of him to have stayed at her pace this whole time. Certainly nicer than she would have guessed he would be two days ago. She still felt like her legs were going to fall off though.

‘I hope Sasuke-kun can figure this out and tell us so this can end soon. I know I can’t do it. And if I can’t find the answer, there’s no way Naruto will.’

No sooner had she resumed her prayers for the test to end, did Gai-sensei appear in front of them. Naruto yelled in surprise, but Sakura was already too out of breath to make a sound. She just fell on her butt and gasped.

‘Some ninja I am.’

“Well done, my precious genin!” The green monstrosity crowed. “You have all demonstrated your understanding of the answer!”

‘Wait- what‽’

Sasuke groaned from his place on Naruto’s back and started climbing down. “You wanted us to work together. You wanted us to exhaust ourselves so the others had to help.”

“Exhausting yourself won’t do you any good if you’ve raced so far ahead that there is no one nearby to help. This didn’t have to be a test of endurance, even if I expected it to go as such. To be honest, I was afraid you were going to fail, young Sasuke. If the team were only Naruto and Sakura, they would have passed yesterday by nightfall. But all three of you had to pass as a team.”

“Oh, I get it!” It suddenly clicked for Sakura. “It wasn’t just about helping, it was about accepting it too. You also wanted us to admit that we needed the others! You wanted us to work together!”

“Well said! If we cannot work together, how can we call ourselves a team? Keep thinking like that and you will be a fine kunoichi in no time! Though your endurance and physical strength need a great deal of work, you were smart enough to admit when you needed help, rather than push too hard and risk injuring yourself, and you trusted your teammate to keep you safe as you slept.” He turned to Sasuke, now standing unsteadily next to Naruto. “You are skilled for your age, but always remember this: Pride has killed many a gifted shinobi. And it can also kill their friends.”

‘He says I need a great deal of work on my endurance? I ran for hours! It’s not my fault all three of these guys are crazy!’ Sakura complained to herself. ‘Of course, I did say I wanted to be stronger. Being this tired for so long is awful, but we might end up having to do something similar for a mission eventually. And I have to impress Sasuke-kun somehow…. I’ll never manage that if I can’t even keep up.’

“Wait, so…. are we done now? Is it over?” Naruto interrupted Sakura’s thoughts.

“Indeed!” Green-sensei boomed. “I must say, you surprised me the most, Naruto! Your scores at the academy indicated that you were far behind your teammates on all subjects, but endurance is impressive for your age and you understood the purpose of this test immediately! Perhaps your previous teachers simply did not know how to recognize your genius!”

“G-genius? Me?”

Sakura had to agree with Naruto’s skeptical tone. Sure, he wasn’t as annoying as she thought he was, but he was still pretty dumb. Sasuke looked like he agreed, having somehow inched away from Naruto without actually moving.

“There are many kinds of genius, many of which cannot be measured by tests of skill, though not everybody knows how to recognize them. Unfortunately, the teachers at the academy rarely recognize the less conventional types, like you. You alone would have passed in minutes! You realized that Sakura would physically have the hardest time with my challenge, and you stayed by her to offer encouragement from the start. Because of this, Sakura was able to push herself much further than she would have on her own, and you tried to prevent her from being hurt by catching her when she fell. And despite already carrying one teammate on your back, you attempted to help Sasuke every time he fell as well, even though he pushed you away. And when he collapsed in the end, you did not hesitate to carry him, despite his earlier rejections. You, my precious student, are a genius of compassion.”

“Really? You think so sensei? You think I’m a genius at com- com- ….the thing you said?”

“Compassion, Naruto. It means to show kindness and empathy to others.” Sakura explained. It did kind of sound like Naruto, now that she thought about it….

“It is a gift well suited to your dream.” Gai-sensei knelt down and placed his hand on Naruto’s shoulder. “A kind heart is important for a hokage to have, in order to win the love of their people.”

“Oh wow, you’re right! He told me the whole village is like his family, so he tries to take care of them! And everybody loves the Old Man!”

“Naruto! You can’t call the Third Hokage that!” Sakura was beginning to realize she was going to be spending a lot her time either explaining something to Naruto, or scolding him. Even if Naruto wasn’t as horrid a teammate as she expected, he was still exhausting. Especially when she was already this tired. Their new sensei didn’t seem to care about Naruto’s blatant disrespect, though. Or that her and Sasuke were barely on their feet. He just started laughing and exclaiming about the “spirit of youth” again. Whatever that was.

 

  
By the time he stopped rambling and let them go home, Sakura was so tired she barely noticed her mother scolding her for not coming home the night before and staying out so late. She tried to mumble something about her new jounin-sensei and his test, but she’s not sure the words actually made it out of her head.

She hoped that nut-job was joking when he said the real work would start at sunrise because Sakura was gonna sleep for a week.


	2. Differing Opinions and Making New Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops?
> 
> I might have gotten a little distracted....
> 
> Also Sasuke was a pain to write, so I kept putting it off.
> 
> Anyways, you can thank my sister, Colonel_B_Buzzington, for making me actually finish this chapter and and my beta, eleutheria_has_won, for making sure it doesn't suck.

Gai-sensei was not joking. That green monstrosity had been serious when he said sunrise. And apparently, he wanted all of them to arrive at the training fields “as a team.”

Sakura’s mother had been livid when the man began pounding on their front door an hour before the sun even began to come over the horizon. Sakura herself was less than pleased at being told she had to start all her days with a twenty minute walk. To make things even better, her teacher being crazy somehow translated into Sakura being disrespectful to her mother’s needs? The only upside to the training schedule the maniac was now raving about, was that Sakura wouldn’t have time to notice that she was grounded. How the hell she was supposed to train like that (especially when she was too sore to even walk normally) eluded her.

Except, the whole “arriving as a team” didn’t explain why she had to be picked up first. She didn’t know where Naruto lived, but she did know that the Uchiha compound was on the opposite side of Konoha from their final destination. They would almost definitely have to go right back past her house to get to the training ground that Gai-sensei had reserved.

At least she was going to get some time with Sasuke without Naruto hanging around. It wouldn’t be for very long, and their crazy new sensei would still be there, but it might make getting up this early worth it. She wondered if Sasuke-kun was a morning person? Sakura hoped not. She was way too sore to pretend she was a morning person. The walk to the Uchiha compound had never seemed so long…

 

 

Sasuke was awake when they reached the compound, and he looked as cool as always, but he also looked as annoyed as always, so the jury was still out as to whether or not he was a morning person. He also looked like he was sore too. He certainly wasn’t as graceful as usual.

And, unfortunately, it turned out that Naruto lived practically next door to the Uchiha compound. Even better, despite not being awake when they got there, Naruto was deafeningly loud the moment he was awake. He just had to make a big deal out of all of them coming to get him. After Naruto’s overjoyed reaction about walking to the field as a team, there was no way Gai-sensei was ever going to change his mind about it.

 

 

This just was not Sakura’s day. Sasuke had barely even glanced at her once. Naruto was bouncing around like they hadn’t run for the last two days. Their jounin sensei wanted them to all wear matching green jumpsuits of tastelessness. And Sakura’s whole body was aching unbearably. The only upsides to anything that had happened so far, was that picking up Naruto didn’t even add ten minutes to their trip and that Gai-sensei wasn’t requiring them to wear those nightmares.

When the four of them had arrived at their designated training field, (after walking within a block of Sakura’s house, as predicted) Gai-sensei had offered them the jumpsuits and (after Naruto accepted all three of them for who knows what reasons) told all of them they were going to “stretch out.” What he should have said was that they were going to spend the next hour and a half holding various positions until it felt like their limbs were either going to tear off or catch fire. Then, they had to spend another hour drilling all their katas from the academy. And, because their sensei was crazy they followed all that up with a “light jog,” (sprint) through Konoha to get a second breakfast (or in her case, a first one, since he’d woken her up at the crack of dawn, and unlike Naruto, hadn’t shoved random food in her mouth while she got dressed).

Thankfully, they got to walk to the mission desk after they got their breakfasts. Sakura silently thanked every god she’d ever heard of that they got to sit down and eat while waiting for their mission assignment. (She then wished she could retract that gratitude when Gai-sensei returned, lamenting that he’d only managed to get two D-rank missions for the day.)

Their first mission turned out to be weeding some lady’s garden. Sakura was relieved at it’s easiness for all of two seconds, before the green menace declared that they should show their “Spirit of Youth” by “challenging themselves” to do the whole thing while alternating between doing one hundred squats and one hundred pushups. Sakura didn’t even last five minutes before she gave up and just weeded like a normal person. Sasuke didn’t do it at all. He just scoffed and said it was ridiculous and would slow down the mission. (Gai-sensei started crying dramatically and declared he would revive Sasuke’s youthful spirit in response.) Naruto, by virtue of being some kind of freak of nature, managed to keep it up the entire mission (except for when he lost count and stopped to try and remember with his fingers. Seriously, how dumb was he?)

It was almost noon by the time they finished, so Gai-sensei said he and Sasuke were going to get lunch and would meet Sakura and Naruto back at the training field. For some reason, he also told them to write down what they know about chakra to review with him while they ate. Which sucked, because Naruto was absolutely no help. At first, he even tried to act like he knew everything, even though he clearly didn’t. (He called it catra. Catra!) At least he admitted it when she called him out, but it still left her doing all the work and trying to get him up to speed before Gai-sensei got back. (Plus the extra work of answering Naruto’s questions.)

Lunch had better be worth it.

 

 

Lunch was a blessed peaceful and restful period that ended all too soon.

It had taken nearly an hour for Sasuke and Sensei to get back with the food, but Sensei made her and Naruto review everything they (she) came up with before they could eat. By the time they were done explaining everything, she was so hungry, she made the mistake of eating quickly. Naruto practically inhaled his bento, and Sasuke’s was gone almost as fast. Which meant that as soon as she was done, it was time to do their second mission.

This time, they had to walk a bunch of dogs. Gai-sensei wanted them to do it on their hands, but she was way too tired, Sasuke refused and Naruto fell over when he tried, so they ended up just walking the dogs normally. Or they tried. Somehow Naruto ended up getting dragged into a higher level training ground, which apparently had mines planted throughout.

The dog made it out unscathed and unruffled.

Naruto made it out unscathed. Mostly.

 

 

Sakura had hoped to be sent home after they turned in all the mission reports, but instead, Gai-sensei had them race him back to their training field. And then he wanted them to spar — for two hours. Sakura felt like she was about to fall over the whole walk home. She felt even more like crying when he said they would follow the same schedule tomorrow, except that he would try to get more than two missions and they would have weapons training instead of sparring, and then ninjutsu the day after. This hell was supposed to be their normal schedule.

Why did her sensei want to kill her?

 

****

 

Gai-sensei was the best! Like, at least as awesome as Iruka-sensei. They’d only been on a team for a few weeks now, but Naruto could tell that this team thing was WAY better than class at the academy. The very first day of training, Gai-sensei had offered them jumpsuits, just like the one he wore, that would help them train by being sturdy, breathable, and flexible. Naruto wasn’t sure how, or why, the jumpsuits breathed, but they were pretty strong and very stretchy. Plus, they were green, so they made it easier to hide in the trees around the village! Naruto had accepted his right away!

(Sakura and Sasuke hadn’t wanted theirs though. Sasuke had just glared at the one Gai-sensei given to him and said “No.” before passing it to Naruto. Sakura had made some weird squeaky-gagging noise, and then said it was gross and she would rather be dead than wear it. Although, when Sensei made a sad face, she agreed to wear the same color of green, but in “girl clothes,” so Naruto got hers too.)

Naruto wore one of them under his regular clothes every day now. He tried to wear it with just his jacket, but it looked funny, and he missed his pockets, so he pulled his pants on over it too.. But when they worked so hard the next day that he had to take his jacket off, Sakura said the green didn’t match his orange pants and that he looked silly. While Sasuke-teme and Gai-sensei went to get lunch, he asked her what color pants he could wear with his jacket and his new jumpsuit. She said she didn’t know, but that dark grey or black would probably work.

He looked for some on their first off day, but none of the store owners had any for sale, so he wasn’t able to get any. Except, the next week, Sakura had brought a bag to training with her, and inside it had two pairs of dark grey pants! He had to stay up all night making the legs shorter (Iruka-sensei helped), but other than that they were perfect! And Sakura-chan had actually smiled at him when he wore a pair the next day, and thanked him for the Ichiraku Ramen free ramen ticket he gave her in return!

(Sakura-chan was the best too. Naruto was pretty sure they were friends now.)

Gai-sensei was also awesome because he treated Naruto to food EVERY DAY. Sure, he bought lunch for Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme too, but if Naruto didn’t have plans to eat with Iruka-sensei, Gai-sensei invited him to dinner. EVERY NIGHT. He always invited Sasuke too, but that jerk never wanted to come, so Naruto got Gai-sensei all to himself! Gai-sensei talked a lot, but he was also good at listening. And he was never mean. Not that Iruka-sensei was ever a bad listener or mean — just, sometimes it felt like he didn’t really know what Naruto meant or he said things that made Naruto feel like a little kid….

When he talked with Gai-sensei at their dinners, he never said things that confused Naruto (except about the Spirit of Youth, Naruto still didn’t really get what that was) and he kept his promise. Gai-sensei had lots of good advice about things Hokages needed to know, like how to respond to somebody being mean so they would want to be friends instead of staying mean. (It hadn’t quite worked yet, but Hokages also have to be patient sometimes.) He also knew lots of reasons people had for being mean and he didn’t mind talking to Naruto about being the vessel of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

He thought Naruto should tell Sakura and Sasuke about the Fox, but he also said it was okay if Naruto wanted to wait to tell his team.Naruto wasn’t sure if it would be good yet. Sakura was being a lot nicer to him since they started training together, even reminding him of stuff he forgot from Iruka-sensei’s class and she looked really happy when he said he liked her new green dress, but Sasuke was still a big jerk. He didn’t say so many mean things, and sometimes he was even helpful when they were planning for a mission, but they were definitely still more rivals than friends. (He should ask Gai-sensei about rivals. Maybe he would know how to get Sasuke to be nicer and take Naruto seriously as his rival!) He’d have to tell them about the Fox before they started getting bigger missions though. Just in case something really dangerous happened.

Gai-sensei had done a whole lot of nice stuff for Naruto. He had wanted to do something nice back, but it was hard to find things to do for him that felt like a big enough “thank you.” Then, when they met up for ramen last week, Iruka-sensei had the best idea.

Naruto told Iruka-sensei how they weren’t allowed to train at all on their days off, but him and Sasuke had kind of broken that rule on their very first day off (even if he didn’t break it on purpose), so Gai-sensei had said they would spend their off days doing not-training stuff together as a team. And all of them took turns deciding what to do for each rest day. Sakura kept picking the library and Sasuke kept picking to run errands, but Naruto didn’t want to do the same boring thing every time it was his turn.

Last time, Naruto picked going for a walk and having a picnic, cause walking wasn’t hard enough to count as training. The time before that, he picked going to the movies. But this time, he was gonna ask Gai-sensei what he wanted to do!

 

 

Gai-sensei had a rival too! His rival was another jounin-sensei, this really, really cool guy, named Hatake Kakashi. (Did that mean Naruto would be just like Gai-sensei someday, since Gai-sensei’s rival was kind of like Sasuke? He didn’t seem like as big a jerk as Sasuke, but he was really cool, just like Sasuke. Not that Naruto would ever admit that Sasuke was cool to his face! That jerk’s ego was already the size of the moon!)

The team was a year older than theirs, but Gai-sensei thought it would be fun if they all got to know each other. So Gai-sensei had picked to go find his rival and challenge him to a youthful competition!

It hadn’t taken very long to find the guy, since he was just training at one of the fields with his team. Sensei’s rival had this spiky gray hair, even though he said he wasn’t old, and he wore a mask, and for some reason he left his hitai-ate so crooked it was covering his eye. Or maybe he lost that eye? Sakura-chan would probably yell at him and say he was rude if he asked though. Either way, he looked super cool!

The first of his students was kind of a jerk like Sasuke, but meaner and he kind of looked like Hinata for some reason, but if her face was creepy and really pale instead of nice and always turning all red. Then Sakura pointed out that his eyes were the same as Hinata’s and the guy said his name was Hyūga Neji like that explained everything. And Naruto guessed it did explain it, ‘cause Sakura just said “Oh, of course,” and nodded like it did. Eh, he’d ask her how later.

The second guy was weird but really nice, especially to Sakura. He was dressed a lot like rival-sensei, with same dark blue pants and shirt, with the pants’s legs wrapped and the red swirlies on the shoulders of the shirt. He also has this over-shirt, that didn’t have sleeves, and was the same kind of green as the flak jackets chūnin got. The biggest differences were just that he wrapped his hands instead of wearing gloves, and his hitai-ate only almost covered his eyes. He said is name was Rock Lee and that he was going to be some fancy word kind of ninja because he was only good at taijutsu.

And then they also had a girl on their team, but she wasn’t as cool as Sakura. She said her name was Tenten and that she liked weapons, but she didn’t even have any weapons with her, just a bunch of scrolls. She kind of seemed Ino with buns, but quieter and kind of obsessed with creepy, not-Hinata jerk instead of totally obsessed with Sasuke-teme.

Gai-sensei must have already met them, ‘cause creepy jerk was already ignoring him, the way that Sasuke does whenever Sensei starts talking about the Spirit of Youth. The copy-cat guy smiled and bowed to Gai-sensei when they got there. He said something about practicing what Sensei taught him, too. Gai-sensei probably had to teach him stuff because he was so much better than rival-sensei. Rival-sensei might look cooler, but Gai-sensei was definitely the best.

Naruto couldn’t wait to see Gai-sensei beat his rival in the challenge!

 

****

 

Sasuke could always count on Naruto to be annoying.

He had hoped the idiot would pick something relatively short, like a movie again, so he could go home and actually do something worth his time. But instead, the moron went and asked their insane sensei what he wanted to do and gotten all of them dragged off to meet these nobodies.

Who even were these wimps? At least the jounin looked like he was skilled.

“Kakashi! My Eternal Rival! Now that our dear genin have met, it is time to get down to business. I challenge you to another Youthful competition! Do you accept?”

Sasuke would accept some good ear plugs. Actually, he should add that to his shopping list for when he got his next turn to pick.

“Don’t you have something else you should be doing, Gai?”

Finally, someone who wasn’t stupid!

“No!” Gai was laughing and sticking his thumb out. Again. Why. “Today is our off day, so that our bodies might be rested and ready for training!”

“Fine. I accept your challenge. What are we doing this time?”

Why?! Why did this guy accept?! Why was he wasting their time pandering to their freak of a sensei?! He didn’t even really seem all that upset about it! He was supposed to be the sensible one, not enable this stupidity!

“A race to see who can climb to the top of the Hokage Mountain! And if I lose, I will climb down one handed, and without chakra!”

And there’s another dramatic pose with an over the top thumbs up. Did the other jounin just shrug? He was really going along with this? What else was secretly wrong with him?

“But Sensei, wouldn’t that break the rules? You said our team wasn’t allowed to do any kind of physical training today.”

And there she is, sticking her nose in wherever and whenever she could. Annoying Miss Know-it-All, correcting everybody. Just couldn’t stop herself, could she.

“Ack!” — Is it really necessary for him to clutch at his face like that? It’s so obviously overdramatic. — “You’re right! Forgive me, Kakashi, but I must request to change the challenge. After all, how can I expect something from my students if I cannot provide them with proper role model!”

Yeah, well, you haven’t even come close to that yet, so who cares. The only thing you’re good for is your training schedule.

“Okay.”

Really? Just another shrug?

“Let me think, something that isn’t a physical challenge….”

Wow, Gai-sensei, you sure are thinking hard. Don’t strain yourself.

“Oooo! Gai-sensei! What about who can play the best prank? Like, you guys have to go prank somebody, and then we’ll pick which one was funnier!”

And there’s the blond idiot. It’s a miracle he was quiet for even that long.

“They can’t do that Naruto!” And now the know-it-all is shrieking. “Isn’t that how you got in trouble the first time, running away from one of your stupid pranks?”

Not to mention the problem of them being elite jounin. As if they would be immature enough to pull a prank. Well….Maybe Gai-sensei, but there was no way this other guy would stoop to that level.

“Sakura-chan is right. If we were to be caught mid-prank, we would have to break the rules of the rest day!”

“Of course, that would only be if you got caught. I never get caught, unless I mean to.”

Seriously?! Are all jounin-sensei insane?! Sasuke had really hoped this guy was just humoring Gai-sensei — but now he’s talking seriously about pranking people?! How the hell is he supposed to kill Ita— that man — if there were no decent teachers in the village?!

“Balancing! …. No, no, still a physical ninja skill….”

Really, sensei, don’t hurt yourself. Or do, but at least make sure a decent ninja get assigned as your replacement.

“Kakashi-sensei! Gai-sensei! What if the two of you were to see who can eat the most of something the fastest? Eating is not part of ninja training, so it does not break the rules of a rest day. Would that not be a suitable challenge?”

The Kakashi-sensei wannabe is joining the conversation now. Great. At least the other two members of that team were standing away from the crazy ones. Maybe all Konoha ninja weren’t a total lost cause, just the ones he was stuck on a team with. Lucky me.

“Ah! That is a splendid suggestion, young Lee! Kakashi, do you accept?”

“Yeah, sure. What are we eating?”

And another shrug. It’s official. This guy may look like a real ninja, but he’s just as annoying and stupid as everyone else.

“Ramen, Sensei! Pick Ramen! Ichiraku’s is really close!”

Another brilliant suggestion from the blond moron. Sasuke was so surprised he suggested ramen.

“Very well, let’s head over to Ichiraku’s. And if I lose, I will pay for both our teams to have dinner tonight.”

No! He’s expecting this to take long enough for the teams to go to dinner? He’s completely wasting the entire day! Ugh! Why is everyone so annoying?!

“Fine, I accept. Although it really isn’t necessary for you to take my team to dinner. I still don’t know why you always have to make things more complicated for yourself.”

Nobody knows that. And nobody would care if he would just stop making things more complicated for everyone else in the process. At least he isn’t laughing louder than should be humanly possible.

“Let us demonstrate the power of our Spirit of Youth!”

And now he’s laughing. Obnoxiously. Great.

There were so many things he would rather be doing than follow his ridiculous sensei down the street. At least the other team walked like normal people, instead of jumping about all the time like the idiotic menaces he was stuck with.

 

 

Sasuke wasn’t sure what just happened. That Kakashi guy somehow ate 17 bowls of ramen in five minutes without anyone seeing his face. How the hell did he even do that?

The kunoichi on their team had started shrieking when she realized that she’d been watching Gai try to cheer about “youth” while he ate and missed her teacher eating. Had she seriously never seen her own teacher’s face?

And now we all “get” to go back to the training fields for some “friendly team-bonding” time before dinner. Lucky me! Ugh. He had hoped he wouldn’t have to waste his entire day, but apparently, that was too much to ask for.

At least his dinner would be free, even if he had to eat it with these idiots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for the wait.... I'll try not to take so long for the next chapter


End file.
